Paul Michael Peters is an American fiction author. His works include "Peter in Flight", "The Symmetry of Snowflakes", and a collection of short stories titled "Mr. Memory and Other Stories of Wonder." After studying at the Second City in Chicago, he spent extended periods of time living in Philadelphia and Toronto before returning home to his beloved big mitten-shaped state in Ann Arbor Michigan. He also writes a blog titled Everywhere Man about his frequent travels.

I have been going to the same dry cleaners for about 17 years. I have helped her three beautiful daughters get through university, and she has jokingly thanked me for helping pay for tuition. In those 17 years I can name the two times I have had the slightest of problems. Things so small I fear that even mentioning them gives them more focus than they deserve.

Today, picking up my folded shirts that I forgot to pick up last week, there was the mention of a slight price increase. I had not noticed. During my time in Chicago or living in Toronto, I would still drop my dry cleaning off at this location when passing through, because in those cities, dry cleaning was both more than double her price and untrustworthy in the state of each items return.

“You don’t realize,” I explained. “Dry cleaning, your service, is one of those things in life I just don’t have to worry about any more.”

I like that concept. I want more of that in my life. More people like my dry cleaner. Someone with such a great consideration for care and quality, I just don’t worry about that any more.

Could you imagine? A company that has such great luggage, I know that I will always buy that make and model when it one day, long in the future won’t keep up with me. A computer bag with the capacity and comfort I need that didn’t fall apart after six months on the road. A car rental agency that provided a car without sticky gooey grossness, didn’t smell like the combination of foot with a smokers remorse.

Maybe it’s me, but when I find someone or something no longer needing my worry and has my full trust, it is worth the small cost increase. Value is not always about price, but combines time and care. I wish I had more people like my dry cleaner in my life. I will tell you my secret, if you share with me yours